Companies Act 2006
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| Long title | An Act to reform company law and restate the greater part of the enactments relating to companies; to make other provision relating to companies and other forms of business organisation; to make provision about directors’ disqualification, business names, auditors and actuaries; to amend Part 9 of the Enterprise Act 2002; and for connected purposes |
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| Citation | 2006 c 46 |
| Territorial extent | England and Wales; Scotland; Northern Ireland |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 8 November 2006 |
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Status: Current legislation
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| History of passage through Parliament | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Revised text of statute as amended | |
The Companies Act 2006 (c 46) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which forms the primary source of UK company law. It had the distinction of being the longest Act in British Parliamentary history: with 1,300 sections and covering nearly 700 pages, and containing 16 schedules (the list of contents is 59 pages long) but it has since been surpassed, in that respect, by the Corporation Tax Act 2009.
The Act was brought into force in stages, with the final provision being commenced on 1 October 2009. It superseded the Companies Act 1985.
The Act provides a comprehensive code of company law for the United Kingdom, and made changes to almost every facet of the law in relation to companies. The key provisions are:
The Bill for the Act was first introduced to Parliament as "the Company Law Reform Bill" and was intended to make wide-ranging amendments to existing statutes. Lobbying from directors and the legal profession ensured that the Bill was changed into a consolidating Act, avoiding the need for cross-referencing between numerous statutes.
The reception of the Act by the legal professions in the United Kingdom has been slightly lukewarm. Concerns have been expressed that too much detail has been inserted to seek to cover every eventuality. Whereas a complete overhaul of company law was promised, the Act seems to leave much of the existing structure in place, and to simplify certain aspects only at the margins. In other areas, it is said to have complicated and obfuscated previously settled law and may make doing business more difficult for those operating small companies.
A small portion of the Act came into effect on Royal Assent in November 2006. The first and second Commencement Orders then brought further provisions into force in January 2007 and April 2007. The implementation timetable for the remainder of the Act was announced in February 2007, by Margaret Hodge, Minister for Industry and the Regions. The third and fourth Commencement Orders brought a further tranche of provisions into force in October 2007, and the fifth, sixth and seventh in April and October 2008. The eighth commencement order, made in November 2008, brought the remainder of the Act into force with effect from October 2009.
The staggered timetable was intended to give companies sufficient time to prepare for the new regime under the Act, rather than implementing all 1,300 sections of the Act on one day.
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